Sen. Tom Carper (click here) gave the opening statement at the to consider H.R. 5430, United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act....
...“It is no surprise that I, and many Democrats and a growing number of Republicans, too, think that we need to act with a sense of urgency to address climate change,” said Carper. “It’s just been reported that our planet experienced its second-hottest year on record in 2019. The last decade was the hottest decade in the history of our planet. Australia is on fire, the Arctic is melting and our seas are rising. If we were only measuring the new NAFTA by what it does to address climate change, it doesn’t work. Plain and simple.”
“The new NAFTA fails to recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement,” said Carper. “It continues to give special treatment to fossil fuel interests. It fails to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, (click here) which could bring the global community together to reduce the use of HFCs and avoid up to a half degree Celsius in global warming by the end of the century. And like so many of the Trump administration’s proposals, the new NAFTA fails to even mention the words ‘climate change.’”
“With these major deficiencies on the climate front, the new NAFTA’s environment chapter cannot be a considered a template for future trade negotiations,” said Carper....
Barrasso (click here)
This environmental assault makes no sense at all. These chemicals are 1000 X more toxic to Earth's Ozone Layer.
Barasso should never be allowed in the US Senate again. He is allowing a disaster to occur.
The Kigali Amendment is a bonus to the business sector and yet there is no government ratification of this vital amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
November 18, 2018
By David Jenkins
Although he rarely gets the credit he deserves, (click here) President Ronald Reagan is responsible for pushing through the most successful environmental treaty of all time. That 1987 treaty, the Montreal Protocol, began phasing out the production and use of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were harming our life-sustaining atmosphere....
...That is great news. However, another family of substances have been found to harm the atmosphere. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have replaced CFC-based refrigerants, are potent greenhouse gases — over a thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Fortunately, American manufacturers saw this coming. They have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop next-generation replacements that protect the ozone layer without warming our climate.
In 2016, this advance prompted the U.S. and other signatories of the protocol to draft and approve the Kigali Amendment, which will phase out HFCs over time and open the market to these improved replacements. That global market for products using these compounds is projected to surpass $1 trillion over the next decade.
By ratifying the Kigali Amendment, the U.S. can give American companies a market advantage, and enable U.S. technology to lead this global transition. Ratification is all the more critical because companies from Asia and Europe want to develop and push their own technologies....
October 6, 2019
By Alec Johnson
This may be seen as a tired subject (click here) by now but over the past few months additional counties have come forward and ratified the Kigali Amendment. So far this month New Zealand and Mauritius have both ratified the document. The month before in September we saw Vietnam and Bhutan commit to the amendment.
For those of you who do not know, the Kigali Amendment is an addendum to the original Montreal Protocol that we all know so well. While the goal of the Montreal Protocol was to phase out Ozone damaging substances such as CFC and HCFCs the Kigali Amendment focuses instead on HFC refrigerants. This would include your R-404A, R-410A, R-134a, and others. Instead of the focus being on Ozone depletion we now look at Global Warming Potential....
Barrasso (click here)
This environmental assault makes no sense at all. These chemicals are 1000 X more toxic to Earth's Ozone Layer.
Barasso should never be allowed in the US Senate again. He is allowing a disaster to occur.
The Kigali Amendment is a bonus to the business sector and yet there is no government ratification of this vital amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
November 18, 2018
By David Jenkins
Although he rarely gets the credit he deserves, (click here) President Ronald Reagan is responsible for pushing through the most successful environmental treaty of all time. That 1987 treaty, the Montreal Protocol, began phasing out the production and use of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were harming our life-sustaining atmosphere....
...That is great news. However, another family of substances have been found to harm the atmosphere. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have replaced CFC-based refrigerants, are potent greenhouse gases — over a thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Fortunately, American manufacturers saw this coming. They have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop next-generation replacements that protect the ozone layer without warming our climate.
In 2016, this advance prompted the U.S. and other signatories of the protocol to draft and approve the Kigali Amendment, which will phase out HFCs over time and open the market to these improved replacements. That global market for products using these compounds is projected to surpass $1 trillion over the next decade.
By ratifying the Kigali Amendment, the U.S. can give American companies a market advantage, and enable U.S. technology to lead this global transition. Ratification is all the more critical because companies from Asia and Europe want to develop and push their own technologies....
By Alec Johnson
This may be seen as a tired subject (click here) by now but over the past few months additional counties have come forward and ratified the Kigali Amendment. So far this month New Zealand and Mauritius have both ratified the document. The month before in September we saw Vietnam and Bhutan commit to the amendment.
For those of you who do not know, the Kigali Amendment is an addendum to the original Montreal Protocol that we all know so well. While the goal of the Montreal Protocol was to phase out Ozone damaging substances such as CFC and HCFCs the Kigali Amendment focuses instead on HFC refrigerants. This would include your R-404A, R-410A, R-134a, and others. Instead of the focus being on Ozone depletion we now look at Global Warming Potential....
